Unions strike to protest corruption, job losses

South African unions representing workers across a range of industries embarked on a one-day national strike on Wednesday, dealing a further blow to an economy battered by the coronavirus.

The protest was called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country’s largest labor group, to highlight a litany of grievances, including job losses, an inadequate public transport system, corruption and state spending curbs. The country’s other three main labor associations endorsed the decision to down tools.

Africa’s most industrialised economy shed 2.2 million jobs in the second quarter after a five-week lockdown shuttered most businesses with the central bank expecting it to contract 8.2% this year.

Outrage among workers who retained their jobs and face pressure to support those affected by the meltdown has been stoked by allegations that state contracts to provide protective equipment to tackle the coronavirus were tainted by graft.

Cutting pay

Unions representing civil servants are also up in arms over the government’s plans to renege on an undertaking made in 2018 to grant its more than 1.2 million workers pay increases that would lump the country with R37.8 billion  of additional debt.

About a third of South Africa’s annual R1.95 trillion national budget is dedicated to salaries and freezing civil servants’ pay is critical to Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s plans to cut government spending by R230 billion over the next two years.

While the unions urged their members to take the day off, they decided against staging mass protests due to social distancing measures.

© 2020 Bloomberg